Gaynor Hillier elected as new Chair of NOAH

Gaynor Hillier has been elected as Chair of the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) for 2017. The announcement was made following this year’s NOAH AGM at ZSL, Regents Park in London on 14 June.

Gaynor started her career in animal health as NOAH’s Technical Executive in 1990. She has been head of Elanco UK and Ireland since January 2015 and was an active member of the NOAH Board since 2011, and its vice-chair since 2013.

Speaking at NOAH’s first Members’ Day, Gaynor Hillier outlined her focus for NOAH for the coming year. She said: “Last year we celebrated 30 years of success for our association. The past year has been one of great changes but NOAH has continued to act on behalf of our members, both as the voice of the industry and an information resource.

“The political landscape in which we operate continues to evolve rapidly. We have reaffirmed where we need to focus – on our priorities, which are regulatory matters; explaining the role of antibiotics in caring for our animals and helping stop the rise of antibiotic resistance; working with others as the voice of our industry and serving our members better. Within these, ensuring a successful future relationship with the EU for our sector is integral.

“Over the coming year, NOAH will remain flexible. We have listened to our members by conducting a detailed opinion survey and will learn from the results. We are exploring how to engage with them even better, across the breadth of roles within companies and using all of NOAH’s communications channels.

“That way, we will continue to build on our past success to ensure that we secure a positive future for our members, with the UK animal medicines sector established as a global centre of innovation and research, with NOAH members operating in a competitive environment, providing medicines to keep the nation’s animals healthy,” she said.